Electrical connector adaptors are used for various applications to provide mechanical and electrical connections for electrical connectors, such as wiring harnesses and equipment receptacles. Electrical connector adaptors can be used in electrical systems, for example, for vehicle systems, electric tools, control systems, or other suitable electrical products. Such electrical connector adaptors house and protect terminals from environmental conditions such as temperature extremes and/or environmental substances such as dirt or moisture.
Known electrical connector adaptors suffer from a drawback that instead of being constructed as a one-piece adaptor, they are typically a two-piece set of mating connector adaptors (male housing and female housing assembled by a cable) used to make a single connection between electrical connectors. Each housing can contain electrical terminals and a terminal position device for securing the terminals inside the housing. The mating connectors can include a clip configured to engage the equipment receptacle, thus loosely attaching the mating connectors to the receptacle. Such connectors suffer from a drawback that they do not permit desired adaptation, for example, when dealing with features common to one region such as a country or continent.
Electrical connector adaptors can be subject to a great deal of vibration and heat stress that tend to work loose connections and fatigue the electrical terminals. Thus, the ability to provide an electrical connector adaptor with durable structure to releasably secure the connector adaptor to the equipment and integral means to releasably secure the electrical terminals inside the housing is desirable.
An electrical connector adaptor, an electrical assembly, and a process that is capable of releasably securing that do not suffer from one or more of the above drawbacks would be desirable in the art.